April Terra Livingston’s new sculpture Motherwork stands as an iron-strong reminder of the endurance of women, and that it really does “take a village.” Celebrating the vital role of midwifery today and in history – termed “motherwork” by scholar Patricia Hill Collins – the cast iron sculpture is one of three new works by Livingston commissioned for the Mobile Medical Museum in Mobile, Ala. Eight pairs of life-size hands, cast from the hands of real midwives and obstetric nurses, clasp together in a circle with a central opening, both protective and in the act of assisting birth, symbolizing the collective effort it takes to bring new life into the world and sustain it. The artistic work itself is also collective. Motherwork is one of three sculptures by Livingston (MFA 2011) that were cast by an all-woman iron pour crew at the Sculpture Trails Outdoor Museum in Indiana last summer. Motherwork is installed in the Mobile Medical Museum’s Robert Thrower Medicinal Garden, along with Livingston’s portrait busts of the Poarch Creek midwife and herbalist Bessie McGhee and Dr. James A. Franklin, Sr., one of Mobile’s earliest African American physicians. Livingston’s sculptures for the Mobile Medical Museum have been designated a Bicentennial project by the Alabama Bicentennial Commission. The three cast iron works are the centerpiece of the museum’s exhibit, Dreaming at Dawn: African Americans and Health Care, 1865-1945, that tells the story of African American medical practitioners in Mobile during the Reconstruction and Jim Crow eras. The exhibit will be on view in the Mary Elizabeth and Charles Bernard Rodning Gallery at the museum through July 2019. For information about the exhibition, visit https://www.mobilemedicalmuseum.org/. The hands of Motherwork could be Livingston’s own. The three sculptures are the most recent of her works commemorating some of Alabama’s lesser known history. In 2017, Livingston cast the bust of Cudjoe Lewis, a survivor of the slave ship Clotilda and a founder of Africa Town, for Union Baptist Church in Mobile (see The Loupe, spring 2017). For more information about the UA Department of Art and Art History and its programs, visit our website: https://art.ua.edu/academics/or contact the department at (205) 348-5967.
BFA Senior to Exhibit at Harrison Galleries
Tuscaloosa. — The University of Alabama’s Department of Art and Art History is pleased to present the bachelor of fine arts solo exhibition of Samantha Joslin, titled Matter of Normalcy. The exhibition will be held April 5-15, 2019, at Harrison Galleries, in downtown Tuscaloosa. A reception for the artist will be held First Friday, April 5 from 6:00-9:00 p.m. in the gallery. Samantha Joslin's BFA concentrations are in ceramics and sculpture. Her current body of work has come out of studio research that focuses on the exploration of forms, surfaces, and interactions between different media. "These interactions are reflective of life in its most intimate moments and conditions," she says. "My current body of work centers on pieces which imitate experience in life and the human form, thus speaking of the relationships between ourselves, the world around us, and its interpretations through emotion. I am interested in illustrating the human condition in a way which is simultaneously familiar yet peculiar and understandable yet puzzling. The balancing of such physical and conceptual contrasts leads to an investigation of visual formlessness, which obscures categorization. I want to expand upon this notion of blurring identity as it connotatively relates to social circumstances and interactions, and how visual factors like contrast, scale, visual speed and interactions of materials can subtly reflect these themes." Joslin was a University of Alabama Undergraduate Research & Creative Activity (URCA) grant recipient in the spring of 2019 and a Windgate Fellowship nominee in 2019. She received the Carolyn Haddon “Julie” Matthews Memorial Endowed Scholarship, the Farley Mood Galbraith Annual Scholarship and the Paul R. Jones Endowed Scholarship. She was a student employee in the Sella-Granata Art Gallery and was awarded UA work-study grants in sculpture and ceramics. In 2018, Joslin was awarded a paid internship under Tuscaloosa sculptor Lee Busby. She has been awarded tuition grants to participate in ‘Sculpture: Clay, Wood, and Steel’ by Trey Hill, Anderson Ranch Workshop, Snowmass Village, Colo. and has served as a volunteer demonstrator in clay for the Arts Renaissance in Tuscaloosa Schools (ARTS) at Matthews Elementary School. She was also a member of Crimson Clay Club, serving as treasurer. After her graduation in May, Joslin hopes to undertake a post-baccalaureate program. "I am planning to focus mainly on ceramics while still incorporating sculptural elements and other materials." This exhibition is part of the bachelor of fine arts degree program in the Department of Art and Art History at The University of Alabama. For more information about all our programs, visit this link: https://art.ua.edu/academics/. Harrison Galleries, LLC, is located at 2315 University Boulevard in downtown Tuscaloosa. Hours are Monday through Friday, 12:00 noon to 5:00 p.m., by appointment, and First Fridays of the month, 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. For more information call (205) 464-0054 or visit the website: http://www.firstfridaytuscaloosa.com/art-galleries/harrison-galleries-llc.
UA Instructor Wins Select Southern Art Award
Full-time instructor Jamey Grimes has been named the 2019 South Arts State Fellowship recipient for Alabama and awarded $5,000. The South Arts State Fellowships are awarded to one artist each in nine southern states whose work reflects the best of the visual arts in the South. Artistic excellence is the sole criterion for selection. Grimes will now compete for the Southern Prize, which includes an additional $25,000 cash award and a two-week residency at the Hambidge Center for the Creative Arts and Sciences. Grimes, along with the other State Fellows, will be featured in an exhibit at the 701 Center for Contemporary Art in Columbia, South Carolina, from March 21 – May 5, 2019. The winner of the Southern Prize and a $10,000 finalist award will be announced at a ceremony celebrating the State Fellows on April 15 at 701 CCA. The South Arts Southern Prize and State Fellowships acknowledge, support and celebrate the highest quality artistic work being created in the American South. The program is open to individual artists living in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. This is the first year that the South Arts fellowship winners will be featured in a group exhibit. “One of our goals is to celebrate the excellence, innovation, value and power of the arts of the South,” continued Surkamer. “By curating a public exhibit of the State Fellows, we are able to share their dynamic work and highlight the breadth of style cultivated throughout our region.” Jamey Grimes, who has taught in UA's Department of Art and Art History since 2008 and is an alumni of its MFA program, has shown his artwork widely throughout the US. His exhibitions include the Montgomery (Ala.) Museum of Fine Arts; Austin Peay State University’s New Gallery, Clarksville, Tenn.; Stephen Smith Fine Art, Fairfield, Ala.; Kendall Galleries, Grand Rapids, Mich.; Dunedin Fine Art Center, Fla.; Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts; Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts, Grand Rapids, Mich.; Sculpture Key West; and FAT Village, Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Grimes’ sculpture has been installed in temporary and permanent venues around the country. Throughfall was permanently installed at Pinnacle Bank, Nashville, Tenn., in 2009. In 2012, his work was selected for the lobby of the Pinellas County Health Department in Largo, Fla., and in 2013 his sculpture was installed at the Fairmont Chicago at Millennium Park in Chicago, Il. In 2017, Grimes installed a second large-scale sculpture, Flow, in the headquarters of Pinnacle Bank in Nashville, Tenn. Grimes was awarded the 2015 Visual Arts Educator of the Year by the Arts Council of Tuscaloosa. He is a 2012-2013 Alabama State Council on the Arts Visual Arts Fellowship Recipient. He won the 29th West Alabama Juried Art Show Purchase Prize (2013); the Purchase Award at the 39th Annual Bi-State Art Competition, Meridian Museum of Art, Meridian, MS (2012); and was selected for the 10th Anniversary Installation, 4 Bridges Arts Festival, First Tennessee Pavilion, Chattanooga, TN. Grimes was also the Guest Juror for the 2015 Orange Beach (AL) Arts Festival; he was the 2014 Creativity in Collaboration Grant recipient for Projection Mapping, with UA's Creative Campus. Go to our website for more information about UA’s Department of Art and Art History degree programs.
UA Sculpture To Collaborate With UAB and UAH on New Art Trail
Professor Craig Wedderspoon is one of three inaugural recipients of the new McMahon-Pleiad Prize, given by the Board of Trustees of The University of Alabama System. The prize has been awarded to a collaborative public art project, the UA System Art Trail, conceived by Wedderspoon and his colleagues Stacey Holloway of UAB's department of art and art history and Chris Taylor of UAH's department of art, art history, and design. Established by the Board to honor Trustee Emeritus John J. McMahon, Jr., the McMahon-Pleiad Prize advances collaboration in the UA System, consistent with the vision and leadership of Trustee Emeritus McMahon. The Prize includes a $75,000 one-time award, underwritten by the McMahon family, which will be shared equally among the three UA System art departments to cover the cost of project materials and related expenses. At each of the three UA System campuses, each group will design and create a durable, well-crafted public sculpture that enhances the visual aesthetic of each campus. The three outdoor pieces will rotate every two years, then return to their originating campus for permanent installation. Each team plans to unveil the sculptures before June 2019. According to UA News Center, a primary goal of the public art trail is to create opportunities for faculty and students in all three System art departments to discuss, develop and install projects collaboratively. Students will be able to share their designs with new and expanded audiences. According to the proposal, which was chosen from more than a dozen entries, “The McMahon-Pleiad Public Art Trail has the potential to visually enhance the entire UA System with an innovative, world-class public art program.” Professor Wedderspoon described the project's progress on UA's campus so far: "I put it out to my sculpture students as a design competition and junior BFA sculpture major Ringo Lisko’s proposal has been chosen. She has just started working on the wax for a scale model. Next she will get to work on the full-scale piece." Board president pro tem Ronald Gray described the public art trail project: “It represents the essence of collaboration and creative excellence that defines our friend and colleague John McMahon and our System.” For more information about the UA Department of Art and Art History and our programs, go here: https://art.ua.edu/about/
UA Alumnus Creates Giant Working Kaleidoscope
Ever had a sudden urge to peer through a giant kaleidoscope? Now you can! The latest permanent public sculpture, titled simply Kaleidoscope, is designed and built by UA art alumnus and foundry specialist Eric Nubbe, and has been installed by UA Art Foundry at Snow Hinton Park in Tuscaloosa. Commissioned by Tuscaloosa PARA, the seven-foot-high aluminum sculpture is a working, interactive kaleidoscope, perched at the northwest corner of the park. Since kaleidoscopes are shaped like a simple tube, Nubbe decided to make the massive optical instrument more interesting, so he chose the shape of a sextant - another viewing instrument which sailors have used to navigate the seas for hundreds of years. The kaleidoscope looks northwest into the sky over Tuscaloosa and the mirrors inside the kaleidoscope reflect whatever the skies look like on that day. In many kaleidoscopes, loose pieces of colored glass inside the tube are mirrored into symmetrical and colorful patterns as you turn the scope. Nubbe decided to add something similar to his. Instead of just looking up into refracted reflections of the sky, viewers look through translucent blue Plexiglas gears that Nubbe cut [on?]. When visitors look into the viewer, they rotate a disk just to the right of the scope, and the disk turns the blue gears inside, creating beautiful blue patterns across the sky. Eric Nubbe's Kaleidoscope is part of a Public Art Project commissioned by the Tuscaloosa County Parks and Recreation Authority to put art in parks around Tuscaloosa County. Giant steel flowers created by student artists Ringo Lisko and Amber Daum were installed last year in Monnish Park as part of the same project.
UA Art Students Conspire in Monster Coup of Tuscaloosa
Terrifying monsters of all shapes and sizes have overrun the city of Tuscaloosa! Termed the "Monster Takeover," official reports verify that UA art students were heavily involved in the invasion of bronze handmade monsters, stationing their terrifying, but usually tiny, metal miscreations in key locations around town. Track them down at your own risk! Multiple locations in downtown Tuscaloosa are the sites of Monster Takeover, an extension of the Monster Makeover program established by the Tuscaloosa News in 2010. Combining the creative talents of local elementary school children and UA students, the Takeover features bronze sculptures placed at various locations in downtown area. Monster Takeover used the same process as the original program, but the artists were all students in the Department of Art and Art History at The University of Alabama. The UA students’ works, based on past Monster Makeover participants, were all sculpted and then cast in bronze, under the direction of Professor Craig Wedderspoon. Placed in various locations throughout downtown Tuscaloosa, the monsters are now on public display. Junior BFA major in sculpture, Ringo Lisko's sculpture, inspired by the art of elementary student Lawson Kelly, is on the I-beam at Harrison Galleries, 2315 University Boulevard, overlooking the sidewalk. Lisko is also co-creator of the Monnish Park sculpture, Amaryllis, with Amber Daum. Said Lisko, “I am very excited to be a part of Monster Takeover, especially since I got to be in on the very first wave of monsters to go up around town. It was a great experience working with the kids’ drawings, and trying to do justice to their awesome imaginations. I’m also thrilled to be adding to the public art of Tuscaloosa. I strongly believe that public art is an integral part of a well-rounded and lively community, and I hope that these monsters help to keep that momentum going!” Recent BFA graduate Kalypso Homan's sculpture, inspired by the art of elementary student Lili Gann, is at the corner of University Blvd. and 23rd Street. Sophomore double major in art history and English Sarah Murphree's sculpture, inspired by the art of elementary student Natalie Nelson, is located on 6th Street and 23rd Avenue (Water Collection?) under the park bench. UA student Maddie Kennedy's sculpture, inspired by the art of elementary student Jordyn Green, is located near the Light in Government Plaza. Senior BFA major Jenn Gault's sculpture, inspired by the art of elementary student Sally Poole is at the Dinah Washington Cultural Arts Center on the corner of Greensboro Avenue and 7th Street. Gault has a concentration in sculpture and ceramics with a minor in anthropology. Senior BFA major Jonathan Lanier's sculpture, inspired by the art of elementary student Ryan Zheng, is located in Five, on 6th Street, above the bar. UA graduate student Josh Dugat's sculpture, inspired by the art of elementary student Denny Stuffel, is located near Babe’s Doughnuts on the corner of University Blvd. and Greensboro Avenue. Senior double major in New College and studio art Megan Fletcher's sculpture, inspired by the art of elementary student Megan Roberts, is at the Government Plaza 6th Street entrance pillar, crawling toward the plaque. Sophomore art major Zane Boyd's sculpture, inspired by the art of elementary student Dai’Quan O’Neal, is located at the Bama Theatre, 600 Greensboro Avenue. For more information about the UA Department of Art and Art History academic programs, go here: https://art.ua.edu/academics/.
UA Professor’s Work Installed at Montgomery Museum’s New Sculpture Garden
Professor Craig Wedderspoon's sculpture, Oval, is part of the Montgomery Museum of Arts new John and Joyce Caddell Sculpture Garden, which opened September 30, 2018.
New Sculpture in the Garden
Like an exotic flower that blooms overnight, a new sculpture has recently appeared in the Woods Quad Sculpture Garden. Mobius and Borromean Rings was designed and created in steel by marketing major and studio art minor Paget Kern. Kern, who has taken sculpture courses for her art minor and makes jewelry at home, designed the work in a collaborative project with students in the departments of Math and Art and Art History. She linked two complex mathematical ideas together in a massive sculptural example. Kern explained that the design is “a triple Möbius strip tied together in a Borromean knot.” Kern's monumental sculpture joins a bouquet that includes work by nationally known sculptors, art faculty and former sculpture students. At the center of the garden is Craig Wedderspoon, "Quilted Vessel," 2013, cast and welded aluminum. "Montgomery Marker" by Craig Wedderspoon, in the Woods Quad Sculpture Garden, UA campus Lindsay Jones Lindsey, "Fibonacci Spiral" installed in the Woods Quad Sculpture Garden, 2014. Billy Lee, Homage to Brancusi, 1993, 138 x 28.5 x 12.5 inches; painted steel. Joe McCreary, "Goldie 1971," 2009, iron and steel; approx. 23 ft., in 2018, in the Woods Quad Sculpture Garden. Read more about the Woods Quad Sculpture Garden and UA's public sculpture. Go here for more information on The University of Alabama's Department of Art and Art History.
UA Art Foundry Casts Sculpture Across Alabama
Towering steel flowers, a massive mathematical loop-de-loop, larger-than-life baseball players and renown university presidents are just a few of the projects, supervised by Professor of Art Craig Wedderspoon, that have been created in the giant work bays at UA's art foundry. From Tuscaloosa to Gadsden, sculptures from the foundry find homes around the state. It takes skill and determination, caution and daring to see complex design projects grow from drawings and models to finished public sculptures. Wedderspoon and his team – foundry specialists Eric Nubbe, Joe McCreary and Ringo Lisko, with senior arts technicians Patrick O'Sullivan and Mike Eddins – work with strict safety standards and an inventiveness that keep all the machinery running smoothly behind those gigantic sliding garage doors on Margaret Drive. Now, a monumental new sculpture, cast in the foundry, is ready to become part of the Woods Quad Sculpture Garden. Mobius and Borromean Rings is designed and created by marketing major and studio art minor Paget Kern. Kern, who has taken sculpture courses for her art minor and makes jewelry at home, designed the work in a collaborative project with students in the departments of Math and Art and Art History. She linked two complex mathematical ideas together in a massive sculptural example. Kern explained that the design is “a triple Möbius strip tied together in a Borromean knot.” We’ve all seen the three inter-linked rings of a Borromean ring or knot. A Möbius strip can be made by twisting a strip of paper and adhering the ends together to create a continuous circle that is “unorientable.” If you walked along a center line on the loop, you would go around the Möbius strip twice before coming back to its starting point. The long and the short of it is that you’ll have to go see the sculpture for yourself when the giant twisted loops of welded steel sculpture are installed in the Woods Quad Sculpture Garden this summer. Up north in Gadsden, alumnus and staff member Eric Nubbe's public sculpture, commissioned by Walnut Gallery on behalf of the Gadsden Public Library, has been installed in the green space in front of the library. Just in Time is 7 feet high, 5 feet wide, 7 feet long and made of steel. Nubbe is working on a second sculptural project for the City of Florence’s bicentennial celebration to be fabricated in the foundry: a 20-foot steel musician overlooking the Tennessee River. Past projects of the foundry include a statue of past UA president and UA System Chancellor Robert Witt in Presidential Plaza on UA campus; the nine-foot tall statue of Willie Mays in Regions Field; student-designed and -built bicycle racks in Alberta Park and downtown Tuscaloosa; Amaryllis and accompanying park benches by undergrads Lisko and Amber Daum in Monnish Park; and iron benches for Schoolyard Roots (Druid City Garden Project); among others. The most intensive upcoming projects are related to Tuscaloosa’s and Alabama’s Bicentennial celebrations in 2019. They were competitive commissions awarded to Tuscaloosa artist Caleb O’Connor, Wedderspoon and the foundry. For the state’s commemoration, O’Connor designed sixteen 3-foot by 2-foot high relief bronze panels depicting scenes from Alabama’s history to be cast at the foundry and paired with sixteen interpretive text panels. The entire work is scheduled for unveiling in Montgomery in December of 2019, so mark your calendars! For more information about the UA Department of Art and Art History and its programs, visit this link: https://art.ua.edu/academics/ or contact the department at (205) 348-5967.